Monday, July 03, 2017

The Squamish Places You Should Know

Oh The Places You Should Know is an interactive map in the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh language. The map was created by the non-profit Kwi Awt Stelmexw. On the map all the map labels are in Sḵwx̱wú7mesh. The mountains and waterways are in Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, the islands and villages are all in Sḵwx̱wú7mesh and the landmarks are in Sḵwx̱wú7mesh.

If your Sḵwx̱wú7mesh is a little rusty then you can click on the placename labels and the map markers to find out how to pronounce the name and to learn what it means in English. Many of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh names and markers on the map even have audio files attached which allow you to hear how the word should be pronounced.

Some of the locations featured on the map also include additional information, such as video, photos, stories, and external links. The 'Oh The Places You Should Know' interactive map is an on-going project. More placenames and information about the featured locations will be added to the map.

Native Land is a map of the territories and languages of the indigenous peoples of the United States and Canada. The map consists of two main layers, one showing the 'territory' of First Nation and Native American tribes and the other showing the geographical spread of indigenous languages.

The 'About' page and 'Teacher's Guide' both provide some fascinating insights into the problems faced in mapping the indigenous peoples of North America. The creator of this map even argues that maps are inherently colonial in nature. However, despite these obvious problems, the Native Land map provides a useful guide to the indigenous people's of the U.S. and Canada and also provides links to great resources on the indigenous tribes and languages.

Natives of North America is another interactive map of the Native American Nations. Obviously one of
the biggest problems in mapping Native American territories is that official boundaries between the Nations did not exist and these territories were constantly shifting.

The map overcomes this by creating largely artificial boundaries for the 500 or so native peoples of North America. However the project has been open-sourced in the hope that others will create more fluid maps, which will account for movement over time and for more fluid definitions of the boundaries between the different Native American Nations.

The project's developer also hopes that the Natives of North America map will be improved to include links from each nation to information about the different Native American Nations.